WBI Founders

Our 17 Year Record

From June 1997 until the present, the Namies have led the first and only U.S. organization dedicated to the eradication of workplace bullying that combines help for individuals via our websites & over 10,000 consultations, telephone coaching, conducting & popularizing scientific research, authoring books, producing education DVDs, leading training for professionals-unions-employers, coordinating national legislative advocacy, and providing consulting solutions for organizations. We proudly helped create the U.S. Academy of Workplace Bullying, Mobbing & Abuse.

Jonathan Martin, Miami Dolphins offensive lineman, left the team in October, 2013. His voluntary decision to leave an “abusive environment” caused a firestorm of controversy in the sports world. On January 29, 2014, Martin spoke publicly for the first time about his ordeal with former NFL coach, now NBC sports broadcaster Tony Dungy.

Ron McMillan must have seemed like the perfect target to the three workers on an assembly line in Clearfield, Utah. McMillian had just finished his first year at college in the summer of 1971 and looked clean-cut, nice and perhaps naïve. So they bullied him.

“They’d do things like when I sat down at lunch — while I was eating, they would distract me,” he says. “Then they’d pour motor oil on my sandwich.”

They were relentless. They mocked him. They put him down.

“Words do hurt,” he says. “They do damage.”

That was when McMillan was, as he says, “quite young.” The experience helped stir an interest in workplace bullying. Now, at 61, he is the co-author of the national best-seller “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High” and cofounder of VitalSmarts, an organizational consulting firm based in Provo, Utah. He is also part of a large demographic. Various studies place the percentage of people who have been bullied at work between 30 and 37 percent.

It began as a dream job, taking care of disabled children in a home,
hospital, school setting. The pay was average but finally had adequate
insurance for me and my three children. I had been a widow about a
year.

The first day outside of training I was ignored by a teammate.
It was overlooked as a bad day for her. Within hours of my first few
days off, I was told by another employee they thought I had quit and
couldn’t believe I came back. My first clue! As time went on it became
a mobbing event. I was ostracized, ridiculed, yelled at, etc. I helped
everyone despite the cruelties.

After visiting HR on several
occasions to warn them of fear of physical abuse, and requesting to be
moved to another facility, a chair was pulled out from me causing
physical injury. I then filed a grievance and workman’s comp claim.
This stirred some administrators who then began their bullying
tactics. I was then terminated, while under their workman’s doctor
care.

I couldn’t file a bullying case, so I filed a wrongful
termination case. I suffered a physical and mental breakdown as well
as a financial breakdown. Thank goodness I had gained the knowledge to
file with the EEOC (You see, I had been sexually harassed 21 years
prior by a male manager and learned a little lesson). An attorney was
hired and we filed a wrongful termination case, which has been in the
works for several years now. While recovering, I was able to draw
unemployment before returning back to work. Of course it was for
another employer.

It has been an exhausting roller coaster ride and
although I will never fully recover, I have gained much insight into
the mind games of bullies. I advocate, meditate, and appreciate as
much as I’m able. My youngest son has autism and I was hoping with
that particular job, to get him some help as well. What a
disappointment since that is their business! Life goes on for them but
it stopped us in our tracks.

Legislation is a must! My belief is more
families are harmed by workplace bullying than any other hazard known.
The safety and environmental specialists have missed the boat on this.
Thank you for educating those who haven’t had to endure the harsh
reality of workplace bullying as well as those who have!

Prior life experiences play a role in the depth of emotional injury that bullying can cause a person. Individuals who have never been abused in their lives may take longer to recognize that they are actually being bullied. Without memories or repressed cognitive representations of being the victim of abuse, bullying is a completely novel experience. Learning begins when first targeted for the first time in their lives.

Targets with prior brushes with abuse in their lives do not necessarily risk being targets of workplace bullying. However, when targeted, emotional memories are quickly triggered and those targets are subject to re-traumatization. The levels of emotional pain, shame and distress are much more severe than for individuals experiencing abuse for the first time as an adult in the workplace.

This single-question survey sought to ascertain what percentage of bullied targets were recipients of abusive conduct for the first time in their lives and who are the perpetrators.

Let me be clear. There are not “2 sides” to this story. Bullying is not conflict of an intellectual nature between two people with equivalent power.

Bullying is an uninvited, unwanted assault that is initiated unilaterally. Sometimes by committee as when there are several perpetrators. But it is never started at the invitation of the targeted person.

It’s assault, a non-physical series of repeated attacks. It stops short of battery, physical contact. But it is a form of workplace violence. The cruelest bullies are innovative. They are harmful but rarely are held accountable. Instead, targets are blamed for their fate and held responsible. Strange?

It’s been a relatively quiet week here at WBI. Dr. Namie is traveling and, aside from some activity in Canada, there’s not much media about workplace bullying. We couldn’t finish the week without reaching out to all of you, so I thought I would try to explain why you are being bullied.